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  1. nobble love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. Chiefly British To disable (a racehorse), especially by drugging.
  2. v. Chiefly British To win (a person) over.
  3. v. Chiefly British To outdo or get the better of by devious means.
  4. v. Chiefly British To filch or steal.
  5. v. Chiefly British To kidnap.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To strike; nob.
  2. To get hold of dishonestly; nab; filch.
  3. To frustrate; circumvent; get the better of; outdo.
  4. To injure; destroy the chances of winning, as by maiming or poisoning: said of a horse.
  5. 5. To shingle. See shingle and puddle.

Wiktionary

  1. v. UK, Australia, slang To injure or obstruct intently; batter.
  2. v. UK, slang To gain influence by corrupt means or intimidation.
  3. v. UK, slang To steal.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. disable by drugging
  2. v. deprive of by deceit
  3. v. make off with belongings of others
  4. v. take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom

Etymologies

  1. Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “One of my main correspondents in the nobble is a boy of 11 at the beginning of the book -- by the end he has turned 14.”

    SeeLight:

  • “I have 24 days, starting today, and 25 new letters to write (da nobble is epistolary, dig?)”

    SeeLight:

  • “A pretty feeble ruse, perhaps, but it works. which might work except the nobble is pretty damned big ... that's the problems; and then there's writing as avoidance of writing (kinda like this post!):”

    Writer's Block

  • “April 16, 2008 at 05: 23 AM thanks guys! wendy, "da nobble" is my nickname for my baby. just like i call my cat "fatboy" and "head of shit." i think that's acceptable.”

    Nothing Doing

  • “(BTW, did I never mention that da nobble is called "Chinaman Treetops"?”

    SeeLight:

  • “Clarke uses a tactic that I'm using in da nobble, which is putting some essential information into the footnotes.”

    SeeLight:

  • “Discussing drug cheats on another blog, someone pointed out that it is fairly easy to 'nobble' an athlete.”

    The Dwain Chambers case: the legal issues

  • “Trevor Phillips, head of the Equalities Commission, is facing an investigation into whether he tried to "nobble" a parliamentary inquiry into his work.”

    WN.com - Articles related to Another big push, another procession of coffins... another unwinnable war

  • “It's hard to see this as anything other than trying to "nobble" opponents by confusing voters into thinking that there's a need to vote tactically in this proportional representation election.”

    British Blogs

  • “Oakeshott warns: "It is as wrong as it is stupid for anyone in Whitehall to be trying to nobble the Vickers commission even before it has done its interim report.”

    The Guardian: Banks limber up for battle with the commission

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hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. disenable
  1. disable
  1. incapacitate
  1. steal

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘nobble’.

Comments

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  • chained_bear "'Do you suppose they meant to nobble me?'

    'That is an expression I do not know.'

    'Of course not. I beg pardon. It is a cant word ... the riff-raff hanging about racing-stables and Newmarket and so on use it to mean interfering with a horse so he don't run well, and you can safely bet on him losing.'"
    --P. O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral, 70 Mar 18, 2008

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‘nobble’ has been looked up 1332 times, added to 14 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 10.